11 APRIL 1987, Page 22

LETTERS Independent women

Sir: Piers Paul Read's article `Sex and Sin' (4 April) is based on an imaginary world where every woman could be married to a husband able to protect and provide for his family and with children to cherish and nourish. What about spinsters, widows and deserted wives? Is it all right for them to be emancipated when there is no man to take decisions for them? What about competent women married to incompetent men? What about women whose husbands are unemployed and who have to work to support their families?

Many women who could be very happy in an ideal family, where the father in general accepts the ultimate responsibility and the authority that goes with it, do not have the opportunity and have to acquire independence. Nowadays women are sup- posed to adapt from being an independent spinster to a dependent wife to an indepen- dent widow. Isn't this asking too much? Peggy Rust

8 Grove Terrace, Highgate Road, London NW5